S4 Mini Battery life

[iconata]

Hi all fellow forum members! It was about time to retire my old Galaxy S2, and i decided to buy a S4 Mini. About the same size, better specs and everything. But i dont like the battery life at all. I dont think its normal for my battery to discharge 20% over 8 hours at night. Does anyone have the same problem? I have been trying different approaches. I installed Snapdragon BatteryGuru, put the phone on power saving mode all the time, even switched 3G off, although without 3G there seems to be an improvement, but I'll let you know how's that going. So my concern is that i might have a faulty device.. or software.. idk.. when i had crazy discharge syndrome on my S2 i just changed the kernel and/or the ROM. Any advice or opinions on the battery life of the S4 mini will be welcomed and appreciated!

 

[jonasb_dk]

I don't have too many battery problems, I guess. My phone has been off the charger for around 10 hours - and the battery has dropped to 85% - which I think it OK. I've sent some text messages, checked e-mails, used WhatsApp and had a few phone calls, not exceeding 10 minutes in total. Oh, and the GPS is on 24/7 for now, but I've just got the phone rooted, so this will not be the case any longer. The phone says it still have some 7½ hours left - which wouldn't be enough for an "all nighter" tonight.

I have disables many of the push notifications, which might be the reason why I think it's a fair battery life so far. I used to have the SGS2 as well, which lasted around the same as this phone I reckon. The biggest hog is the Google Services/Framework that takaroundes up 25% of the battery usage at the moment.

I have though of having getting an extra battery for this phone, as it's always nice to have one charged.

 

[Norris5]

My I9195 uses about 3% during night (7 hours, 3G data and wifi off). Try to use an app to see wakelocks used on your device, e.g. Wakelock Detector or Better Battery Stats - they might provide you with some hints to apps that keep your mini from deep sleep, which can cause the battery drain.

Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[arco68]

If it's an I9195, can you try to disable NFC and see if it improves?

 

[Whosat]

My biggest drain is the screen. The device lasts about as long as my friend's S2 (we were playing a coop game together) and then surfed the net over 3G for a while.

We both scrambled to look for a nearby charging socket at almost the same time

 

[iconata]

Thanks for your replies guys! I will try those apps and report back. Wakelock already found one of my apps that has awaken the phone 1200 times.. shieeeeeeeet.. hopefully now that I have disabled it things will go better..

 

[iconata]

Hi all! I have found the source of my battery drain. It's Google location services. Turns out it's a common problem on android 4.2.2. I tutned off Google location an I my phone drained 2% over 8 hours. Sync, wifi and 3g were also turned on. There is a fix over at the nexus 4 forums, but it requires root and I don't know if it will work on our galaxies. If you have root, google nip wakelock fix, try it and report back.

 

[Sparksltd]

I had battery problems on my s4. Turns out it was the SD card. Removed it and battery improved. In the end I had to change it for a new one.

 

[ninjafox]

I had battery problems on my s4. Turns out it was the SD card. Removed it and battery improved. In the end I had to change it for a new one.

Which one did you use? Sandisk 32GB?

I got an S4 mini for my gf with that card and it has terrible battery life.

The battery drained from 100% at 7 in the morning to 15% at 5 in the afternoon...
That's surely not normal...


Edit:

I noticed that the "media" service took up almost as much cpu time and power as (active for 1,5 hours) as the mobile connection.
I suspect, that some corrupt media files or whatever kept the service alive, which tried to scan the DCIM folder over and over again.
I checked the SD Card which was full of almost 5GB of old pictures pictures which for some reason couldn't be deleted because of "unknown errors".
So I took the SD Card out and put it in a card reader, to back up the files. Then I deleted the files, put the card back and formated the card.
Then I copied only some of the new pictures back into the DCIM folder... I'll see tomorrow if that helped.

 

[pudin]

Battery Drain

Hi iconata,
Can you let me know how to "disable" Google location services, which you observed as the source of battery drain? I believe I have disabled it but the battery drain issue still persists.


And FYI - the following is the message I wrote to Samsung and am waiting for their test to validate the result of my S4 Mini. Based on what Samsung told me, the Safe Mode calls out same phone settings as Factory Default, but it seems the following test cases did reveal different resutls from what Samsung told me...


Message to Samsung
-----------------------------------
Hi,
Thanks for advising to check battery under Safe Mode. The following is the 3 test cases I have done but I still have BIG battery drain issue with my S4 Mini.

All the test cases were performed under same conditions:
1. 3G on
2. Power Save Mode on
3. Standby for 8 hours overnight, from 12:00am ~ 8:00am

Test Case-1: All the extra apps installed
- Battery drain: 3% per hour (as I already reported)

Test Case-2: Safe Mode; long press volume-down key, with Safe Mode shown at lower-left corner on desktop
- Battery drain: 0.7% per hour

Test Case-3: Factory default settings; reset to Factory Default setting; all the data were deleted and no extra apps were installed; the phone was back to the original Factory default setting
- Battery drain: 2.9% per hour

Test Case-1 and Test Case-3 almost came with same battery drain issue at same drop rate, so those extra apps installed for Test Case-1 shouldn’t have contributed to this battery drain issue so significantly. However, looks like Safe Mode and Factory Default were very different, although you thought the conditions of the 2 should be same.

I still have battery drain issue even after rolling back to Factory Default Settings, and I cannot live with Safe Mode. Please help.
----------------------------

 

[iconata]

Hi iconata,
Can you let me know how to "disable" Google location services, which you observed as the source of battery drain? I believe I have disabled it but the battery drain issue still persists.


And FYI - the following is the message I wrote to Samsung and am waiting for their test to validate the result of my S4 Mini. Based on what Samsung told me, the Safe Mode calls out same phone settings as Factory Default, but it seems the following test cases did reveal different resutls from what Samsung told me...


Message to Samsung
-----------------------------------
Hi,
Thanks for advising to check battery under Safe Mode. The following is the 3 test cases I have done but I still have BIG battery drain issue with my S4 Mini.

All the test cases were performed under same conditions:
1. 3G on
2. Power Save Mode on
3. Standby for 8 hours overnight, from 12:00am ~ 8:00am

Test Case-1: All the extra apps installed
- Battery drain: 3% per hour (as I already reported)

Test Case-2: Safe Mode; long press volume-down key, with Safe Mode shown at lower-left corner on desktop
- Battery drain: 0.7% per hour

Test Case-3: Factory default settings; reset to Factory Default setting; all the data were deleted and no extra apps were installed; the phone was back to the original Factory default setting
- Battery drain: 2.9% per hour

Test Case-1 and Test Case-3 almost came with same battery drain issue at same drop rate, so those extra apps installed for Test Case-1 shouldn’t have contributed to this battery drain issue so significantly. However, looks like Safe Mode and Factory Default were very different, although you thought the conditions of the 2 should be same.

I still have battery drain issue even after rolling back to Factory Default Settings, and I cannot live with Safe Mode. Please help.
----------------------------

Hi pudin! You can turn off Google location services from maps app. Go to settings->google location settings and uncheck allow Google to use your location. And to further improve that you can turn gps off, and turn it on when you need to. Yesterday I decided to root my phone because greenify was asking for root permission and everybody was putting the good word for that app. Turns out it's a total croc... you can hibernate downloaded apps, but you can't do the same with pre installed. 0 use. Further more I started to receive an annoying notification that my phone's security has been compromised and it needs to reboot. Got angry, downloaded an official firmware from sammobile, preinstalled, turned google location services off and got this pretty decent battery life. Screenies are below, feel free to post your thoughts. Please note that I keep BaterryGuru and PowerSave on at all time.

 

[pudin]

Battery drain

Thanks for prompt feedback iconata! Now I can confirm the Google location services have been disabled on my S4 Mini. Also, I don't enable GPS unless I need it so those battery consumption numbers were tested without GPS running in the background. I got the call from Ssmaung tonight telling me my phone consumes more power than what they tested, so I'll return it to Samsung for further diagnostic tomorrow. Will keep you posted if any update.

BTW, I'm not that kind of guy brave enough to root my phone like you guys...

 

[fburgos]

im having 3% battery drain over night

using 2 sims.
wifi off
gps off
powersaving off
Network mode: sim1 GSM/WCDMA (auto), sim2 GSM

here are the screens

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ccsi16236v0i7vj/nHkaaH3cLz/Battery Drain S4 mini

ill repeat the test today from 100% battery and see

 

[pudin]

battery drain during standby

Hi,
Checked the image you posted and it looks like you were still doing something such as making calls and playing game over night. Your 3% power consumption per hour is similar to mine, but in my case Cell Standby and Device Idle are the 2 major items consuming the power the most over night, when the phone really enters the standby mode. Try to have your phone enter the standby mode without doing anything over night and check if the result is still the same.

 

[iconata]

strange thing... my battery was showing 16% left.. and went dead..

 

[fburgos]

Hi,
Checked the image you posted and it looks like you were still doing something such as making calls and playing game over night. Your 3% power consumption per hour is similar to mine, but in my case Cell Standby and Device Idle are the 2 major items consuming the power the most over night, when the phone really enters the standby mode. Try to have your phone enter the standby mode without doing anything over night and check if the result is still the same.

that screen on over night wasn't me, today ill remove apps and try to get a clean start not from a day use

 

[pudin]

New FW update that improves battery drain

In coincidence I got notified of a FW update just yesterday night, one day before I sent my phone into Service, and it did improve battery drain significantly, from 3% to just 1% per hour over night after I checked the phone this morning. You guys may want to check the update as well, and I'll test my phone again tonight.

 

[ninjafox]

In coincidence I got notified of a FW update just yesterday night, one day before I sent my phone into Service, and it did improve battery drain significantly, from 3% to just 1% per hour over night after I checked the phone this morning. You guys may want to check the update as well, and I'll test my phone again tonight.

Which firmware?

I flashed the pre-rooted MG4 (over the stock MG4) yesterday, wiped the phone and froze all the samsung bloatware stuff.
That thing is still draining about 4-6% per hour while just lying around untouched. The phone is in power saving mode.

 

[fburgos]

new test factory reset, all bloatware removed, just whatsapp is installed

screens

http://db.tt/nZFb2QKa

I still have 1.7% battery drain per hour I think is still bad

 

[ninjafox]

GMS arena seems to be the only site mentioning that issue:

Unfortunately the higher than average battery drain in stand-by mode prevented the Samsung Galaxy S4 mini from getting an impressive overall endurance rating. Even so it did more than well and if Samsung improves the stand-by time with future firmware updates, it might be one of the longest-lasting smartphones on the market.

http://blog.gsmarena.com/samsung-galaxy-s4-mini-battery-test-is-over-check-out-the-scores/